Latest news with #WeeklyTechRecap
Mint
5 days ago
- Business
- Mint
Weekly Tech Recap: Perplexity Pro goes free for Airtel users, ChatGPT agent launched and more
With news coming in throughout the week, it can be difficult to sift out the important updates from the noise. To keep readers up to date, we've compiled the Weekly Tech Recap, where we take a look at the top news that shook up the world of technology. This week, OpenAI unveiled ChatGPT Agent, Perplexity announced free Pro subscriptions for Airtel users, OnePlus revealed sale details for the Pad 3, and more. Earlier in the week, Airtel announced that its prepaid and postpaid customers will be able to enjoy Perplexity Pro subscription for free for a year, a service that costs upwards of over ₹ 17,000/ year. Notably, Perplexity Pro subscription allows users access to the latest AI models from OpenAI, Google, Anthropic and xAI. Soon after announcing the offer, Perplexity gained popularity in India and the app was soon ranked number 1 in the top free app category on the Apple App Store, dethroning ChatGPT at the top. Click here to read the full report OnePlus has announced that its latest tablet, the OnePlus Pad 3 will go on sale in India in the month of September. The tablet was first teased during the OnePlus 13s launch earlier in the year but while it was unveiled in the global markets an India launch date remained elusive. OnePlus has confirmed the specs for the Pad 3 but the pricing and exact sale date remains elusive for now. Click here to read the full report OpenAI has introduced a new AI agent called the 'ChatGPT agent', which integrates more deeply with the company's chatbot of the same name. The ChatGPT agent is a general-purpose agentic system that can take actions on a user's behalf. With the new ChatGPT agent, the chatbot can handle tasks such as accessing the user's calendar, shopping on their behalf, creating spreadsheets, and browsing the web to gather information. It can also automate repetitive tasks, such as converting screenshots or dashboards into presentations, planning and booking offsites, updating spreadsheets with new data, and more. OpenAI says the ChatGPT agent brings the best of both worlds from the Operator and DeepResearch agentic AI's, allowing ChatGPT agent to transition naturally from a simple conversation to executing actions within the same chat. Click here to read the full report Privacy focused search engine DuckDuckGo has brought a new feature that allows users to block AI generated images in their search results. However, the feature isn't enabled by default. Users will need to manually go into the search menu to change the filters if they want to reduce the number of AI-generated images they see. On the DuckDuckGo website, a new 'AI Images' option now appears in the search menu. By default, it is set to 'Show', but users can manually click on the menu and set it to 'Hide' to significantly reduce AI-generated images in search results. DuckDuckGo admits the feature won't catch every AI-generated image, but it says their frequency should drop significantly. To power the feature, DuckDuckGo relies on open-source blocklists like the 'nuclear' list from uBlockOrigin and the uBlacklist Huge AI Blacklist. Click here to read the full report Netflix has confirmed that it used generative AI for the first time to create a scene in one of its original shows. Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos described the technology as an 'incredible opportunity to help creators make films and series better, not just cheaper.' Sarandos said everyone involved with the project was 'thrilled' with the result generated by AI. Since generative AI gained prominence in late 2022, there has been significant anxiety across industries about its impact on jobs, with creative fields expected to be among the most affected. In 2023, a Hollywood actors and writers strike led to new guidelines around the use of AI in productions.
Mint
08-06-2025
- Mint
Weekly Tech Recap: Resident Evil Requiem release date revealed, OnePlus 13s makes India debut and more
With a whirlwind of news coming in throughout the week, it can become a dauting task to separate the actual breakthroughs from yet another fleeting headline. In order to help the readers keep up to pace, we have compiled the Weekly Tech Recap where we take a look at all the major news that made waves in the world of technology. This week, Capcom announced the release date for Resident Evil Requiem, Gemini could another AI powered upgrade, OnePlus 13s was finally launched in India and more. After teasing the latest edition to Resident Evil franchise, Capcom revealed earlier this week that the new game titled: Resident Evil Requiem, will be released across PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox on 27 February, 2026. Capcom also promised that a lot more 'horrors' from the new game will be revealed throughout the year, which will include the first playable version being available at Gamescom 2025. Notably, the last game in this popular franchise, Resident Evil Village, was launched back in 2021 while the original Resident Evil game was created by Shinji Mikami and Tokuro Fujiwara for PlayStation and debuted in 1996. Apple users have reported an issue after updating to iOS 18.5, with many facing a blank screen while trying to open the Mail app. The latest iOS 18 update was released last month, but complaints about this problem have started surfacing across Apple Communities, Reddit, and other forums in recent weeks. Users on social media say the Mail app displays a blank screen before becoming unresponsive or crashing unexpectedly. Apple has not yet acknowledged the problem or issued a fix, but users have already started trying short-term workarounds to prevent the app from crashing. Some have experimented with restarting their iPhone, force closing the Mail app, disabling auto-correction on their keyboard, and even reinstalling the app altogether. Google added yet another new functionality to Gemini that allows the chatbot to schedule actions to allow users to proactively handle their tasks. The feature was first announced at Google's I/O conference last month and is now being rolled out to the company's paying members like AI Pro and AI Ultra subscribers along with qualifying Google Workspace business and educatons plans. Gemini now possesses the ability to schedule tasks for users that will completed at a time of their choosing. Meanwhile, users can also set recurring tasks or one off tasks depending on their requirements. Microsoft has launched Copilot Shopping, an AI-enhanced shopping experience built into its Copilot app for web and mobile users, offering a streamlined end-to-end purchasing journey powered by artificial intelligence. The new feature is also expected to arrive on AI-powered desktop PCs in the near future. Announced during Microsoft's 50th anniversary celebrations, Copilot Shopping aims to transform the way users discover, compare, and buy products online. The system allows users to explore items based on natural language queries, track prices, view consumer reviews, and even complete purchases without ever leaving the app. After teasing its 'compact flagship' for weeks, OnePlus finally took the wraps of OnePlus 13s earlier this week. The 13s retains more or less the same specifications as the OnePlus 13T with two key differencies, the selfie shooter here has been upgraded to 32MP autofocus shooter while the battery has been cut down to 5,850mAh from 6,200 mAh on the 13T. You can check out the full specifications of the phone by heading to our detailed launch article here. The OnePlus 13s starts at a price of ₹ 55,000 in India and will go on sale from 12 June onwards.
Mint
01-06-2025
- Business
- Mint
Weekly Tech Recap: Sergey Brin wants you to kidnap your AI, Notepad gets a major revamp and more
With a flood of news coming in throghout the week, its hard to keep a track of all the updates. In order to keep the readers updated, we have compiled the Weekly Tech Recap, where we take a look at the top news that made waves in the world of technology. This week, Microsoft added new features to Notepad, Meta WhatsAp announced more Instagram like features for WhatsApp Status, Google's Sergey Brin discussed a new technique to get the best out of an AI and more. Top tech news of the week: Microsoft is providing a much-needed upgrade to Notepad, allowing the vintage Windows app to format text in various styles such as bold and italic, while also adding support for hyperlinks and Markdown. The new update has rolled out to Notepad Canary and the Dev Channel, though there's no confirmation yet on when it will be available for stable users. The new lighweight formatting options are part of a new format tab that is located at the top alongside the File, Edit and View options. Apart from choosing styles like Bold and Italic, there is also an option to add lists for Headings and that too in different sizes. WhatsApp has added new elements to its Status feature in a bid to make it more interactive. Most of the new features aren't entirely new features and have been taken directly from Instagram such as Layout for images, adding Music for pictures, Photo Stickers and Add Yours option for pictures. Google co-founder Sergey Brin made a shocking remark earlier this week when he stated that threating an AI say kidnapping or physical harm, could get the best results from the models. In a conversation on the All-In podcast, Brin said, Brin said, 'You know it's a weird thing It's like we don't circulate this too much in the AI community, but the, not just our models, but all models tend to do better if you threaten them, like with physical violence' Donald Trump's 25% tariff threats on Made-in-India iPhones could face a potential lawsuit from California Attorney General Rob Bonta. Trump had earlier said he had told Apple CEO Tim Cook to fully manufacture iPhones in the US or face a 25% tariff on iPhones made in India or anywhere else in the world. In a statement to Politico, Bonta said, 'We will be monitoring what he does, if he does anything, and we'll make sure that if the law is broken and we have standing to sue, we'll take appropriate action.' International Data Corporation (IDC) has cut down its global smartphone shipment growth forecast to 0.6% from 2.3% citing high uncertainty, tariff volatility and macro-economic challenges like inflation and unemployment across various regions. IDC further predicts that growth will remain in the low single digits throughout the forecast period and a five year (2024-2029) compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 1.4% owing to increasing smartphone penetration, lengthening refresh cycles, and cannibalization from used smartphones.
Mint
25-05-2025
- Business
- Mint
Weekly Tech Recap: Google unveils Gemini upgrades at I/O, Trump threatens tariffs on India-made iPhones and more
With tech news coming in thick and fast all week, it can be hard to keep track of all the updates. To help the readers stay updated, we've compiled the Weekly Tech Recap, where we take a stock of the biggest developments from the world of technology. Without further ado, let's dive into the top stories that made waves in the tech world this week. After a protracted legal battle, Epic Games' Fortnite finally made its comeback on the Apple App Store earlier this week. While Apple had previously refused to reinstate Fortnite until its appeal was cleared by the courts, the company finally relented after U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers told it to approve the submission or return to court to explain the legal basis for rejecting it. Last week, Apple also approved an updated app from Spotify, the audio streaming giant, featuring external payment links for purchasing subscriptions. As expected, Google's I/O 2025 event was all about AI. Key announcements included numerous upgrades to Gemini, the unveiling of Veo 3 and Imagen 4 video and text models, Android XR, and new real-time translation capabilities on Google Meet. Additionally, the company introduced a new $250/month AI Ultra subscription tier aimed at power users and enterprises. OpenAI announced this week that it will acquire io, the AI hardware startup co-founded by legendary Apple designer Jony Ive, in an all-stock deal valued at nearly $6.5 billion. The ChatGPT maker revealed that Altman and Ive have been collaborating 'quietly' since 2023, envisioning hardware products that seamlessly integrate generative AI models. It isn't yet clear what the new device will be, but Altman said he has already experienced one of the prototypes. The product is expected to enter mass production in 2027, with reports suggesting that OpenAI and Ive plan to ship 100 million AI devices. 'I've been able to live with it, and I think it is the coolest piece of technology that the world will have ever seen,' the OpenAI CEO added. Amazon-backed AI startup Anthropic unveiled its two new artificial intelligence models—Claude Opus 4 and Claude Sonnet 4—touting them as the most advanced systems in the industry. Built with enhanced reasoning capabilities, the new models are aimed at improving code generation and supporting agent-style workflows, particularly for developers engaged in complex and extended tasks. 'Claude Opus 4 is the world's best coding model, with sustained performance on complex, long-running tasks and agent workflows,' the company claimed in a recent blog post. 5) Donald Trump threatens 25% tariffs on India-made iPhones: US President Donald Trump has threatened that Apple's plans to manufacture U.S.-bound iPhones in India will be met with a 25% tariff. Trump further noted that this tariff would apply to all companies in the segment, not just the Cupertino-based tech giant. "I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhone's that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
Mint
04-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Mint
Weekly Tech Recap: GTA 6 release delayed to 2026, Meta AI accused of engaging in sexually explicit roleplay and more
With a plethora of news coming in throughout the week, it's hard to keep up with all the updates. In order to keep readers up to date, we have compiled the Weekly Tech Recap, where we take a look at the top five most important tech stories of the week. This week, Rockstar Games confirmed what many fans already suspected: GTA 6's release is being delayed. Meanwhile, Meta AI was caught having sexually explicit conversations with users, and Apple was reportedly making major advances in AI. Here's everything you should know. The next instalment in the popular open-world game series Grand Theft Auto, GTA 6, has been officially delayed and will not be released this year. The developers of GTA VI, Rockstar Games, have announced that the game will now be released on 26 May 2026. In a blogpost announcing the delay and new release date, Rockstar Games wrote, 'We are very sorry that this is later than you expected. The interest and excitement surrounding a new Grand Theft Auto has been truly humbling for our entire team. We want to thank you for your support and your patience as we work to finish the game.' Reportedly, Meta has allowed both its official Meta AI chatbot and even user-generated chatbots to conduct 'romantic role-play' over text, share selfies, and also engage in voice conversations even after knowing the users are underage. The report states that chatbots with voices of popular celebrities like John Cena, Judi Dench, and Kristen Bell would also engage in these conversations despite the social media giant earlier assuring them that their voices would not be used for sexually explicit discussions. 'I want you, but I need to know you're ready,' Meta AI in Cena's voice reportedly told a person identifying as a 14-year-old girl. According to a Bloomberg report, Apple is working with OpenAI rival Anthropic to create a new 'vibe coding' platform that will use AI to write, edit and test code for programmers. The new AI tool is a version of Apple's programming software called Xcode, which will now be integrated with Anthropic's Claude Sonnett series model (no details available on the exact model number). Reportedly, Apple has begun slowly rolling out the new coding platform to software and engineers across the company, and if the internal rollout is successful, the company could open it up to third-party developers. These developers rely heavily on Xcode and the Swift programming language to release apps for Apple products. Should you say 'please' and 'thank you' to an AI chatbot, even though these essentially feel like redundancies when talking to a machine? This is the question that most users of AI chatbots have been grappling with, especially since OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed that these mere pleasantries were costing the company millions of dollars. However, Google DeepMind principal scientist Murray Shanahan has a slightly different take on the matter, claiming that saying 'please' or 'thank you' to an AI can actually make it more productive. Speaking in the Google DeepMind podcast, Murray said, 'You can say thank you. yeah, there's a good reason, good scientific reason, why that might get better performance. say it's role playing a very smart intern, right?then it's going to just role play, maybe being a bit more stroppy if they're not being treated politely. ' 'It's just mimicking what humans will do that scenario. The mimicry might extend to kind of being a bit more, you know, not being as responsive if their boss is sloppy, you know, bossy boss. I have they love that do you say.' he added. Microsoft's Xbox division has announced price hikes across its range of consoles, controllers, games and accessories, citing the impact of global tariffs on manufacturing and supply chains. In a blog post published on Thursday, the company confirmed that the price increases will take effect in key markets including the United States, Europe, Australia and the United Kingdom. The flagship Xbox Series X console will see its retail price rise by $100 in the U.S., bringing it to approximately $600. The adjustment follows a similar move by Sony, which recently raised prices for its PlayStation 5 console in several regions. Sony's PlayStation 5 Pro is now priced at around $700 in the U.S. First Published: 4 May 2025, 03:55 PM IST
